I should followup a bit.

My wife is the primary driver of the 2.8 liter car, and absolutely loves it. I don't want to sound down on the car; it's been a good car so far. Total repairs in the first year of ownership (11 year old car purchased with 88K miles) consist of a water pump.

There are a couple of things MB changed on the later 124s that cause me to like them less well than the earlier models. The suspension on the 2.8 is notably softer than on earlier cars. It doesn't really feel German, though it's not American soft either. With a full load, the dampers feel a bit worn out. Also, the car is somewhat softly sprung, somewhat softly damped, but is wearing Michelin Pilot sport tires. These rather firm, moderatly high performance tires just don't feel right working with that suspension. When they wear, I'm going to mount up some plain-old luxury car tires; I suspect they will suit the character of the car somewhat better.

Also, the seats on the '93 are wider and flatter than in earlier cars - again more like an American car. They are definately comfortable, and still very firm, but have essentially no lateral support. The earlier 124 cars have well defined thigh bolsters built into the seats, which I like.

Of course, there are many things about the later 124 cars that I think are tremendous improvements over the earlier versions. I like the m104 much better than the m103 six. (But give me an M119 any day!) The air conditioning in the later cars is much improved - it's quite effective against our Texas summers, even in stop and go traffic. The later cars have automatic transmissions which start out in first gear.

As with so many things, it's better in some ways, it's worse in some ways.

My random $.02

- JimY